SAVE Act could disenfranchise most married women and active-duty service members
Attorney General Charity Clark, joined by a coalition of 17 other attorneys general, today sent a letter to congressional leadership opposing H.R. 22, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The proposed legislation would create unnecessary and burdensome proof of citizenship requirements that would effectively disenfranchise millions of eligible voters across the country, argues the coalition.
The SAVE Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to unnecessarily require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship before registering to vote. The coalition emphasizes that this requirement would reverse three decades of progress made under the NVRA, which was designed to remove barriers to voter registration and promote greater participation in the democratic process.
“This bill goes beyond a solution in search of a problem; it is a brazen attempt to strip citizens, mostly women, of their ability to vote in the largest attack on voter eligibility since the Jim Crow laws,” said Attorney General Clark. “In this misguided quest to stop what amounts to a handful of ballots from being cast by ineligible noncitizens each year, Congress will disenfranchise millions of married women, low-income and minority voters, and active-duty military members.”
In the letter to House Speaker Michael Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the coalition emphasizes that non-citizen voting is extremely rare. Studies show that in jurisdictions with large immigrant populations, only 0.0001% of votes cast were by non-citizens. Despite this negligible risk, the SAVE Act would impose substantial burdens on eligible voters, particularly affecting poor and minority communities.
The attorneys general warn that the legislation would create significant obstacles for eligible voters, including:
- Requiring expensive documentation such as passports or birth certificates that perfectly match current names;
- Mandating in-person presentation of citizenship documents, effectively eliminating online voter registration systems currently available in 42 states;
- Creating barriers for married women whose birth certificates don’t match their current names; and
- Disenfranchising active-duty service members who cannot return to their local election offices.
“Over 21 million voting-age citizens do not have ready access to a passport, birth record, or naturalization record,” the coalition notes in their letter. “And 80% of married women would not have a valid birth certificate under the SAVE Act because those women chose to adopt their partner’s last name.”
The attorneys general also highlight concerns about the substantial administrative and financial burdens the Act would place on state election systems. The legislation would require states to fundamentally restructure their voter registration procedures and create new systems for document verification, while criminalizing mistakes made by election officials with penalties of up to five years in prison.
The coalition urges congressional leadership to oppose the SAVE Act and maintain accessible voting rights for all eligible Americans. Protecting election integrity should not come at the cost of disenfranchising legitimate voters.
Joining Attorney General Clark in sending this letter are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
A copy of the letter is available to read here.
CONTACT: Amelia Vath, Outreach and Communications Coordinator, 802-828-3171